And yes, indeed, he was a good friend of mine. He’ll be a friend of yours, too, after you’re done reading this article, assuming you haven’t drooled all over your phone that the screen has become unusable. For you monitor monkeys, I really hope you’re not horizontally drooling. If so, you may want to consult your nearest witch doctor.
ENYWHEY. Today we’re looking at Jarrett Allen, who’s been getting a ton of write-up on the site and I’ll make it the official coming-out party right now.
Back in the pre-season when I did my Nets team preview, I pointed to Allen as an acquisition target. See, 2020 was a disaster on all fronts (maybe you didn’t hear), and the Nets ended up splitting time between a bunch of different players before hiring a new coach and sending Kevin Durant to the healing waters of the East River. Now that we’ve got a handful of games under our belt, we can start calling trends and oogling the value players out there. Allen certainly wasn’t under the radar, but even right now, he’s available in 16% of Yahoo leagues. What’s more interesting is that only 34% of managers are starting Allen, which is downright advantageous for the fantasy manager looking to get an upside player for cheap. Also, he’s like $5800 on DFS sites right now, which is a downright steal.
Let’s take a closer look at Allen, and see why you might want to grab him in your league.
Player Efficiency Rating: Sorting through this column on BasketballRef, you’ll find the usual suspects in the top tier, and then there’s #12: Jarrett Allen. At 22 years old, he’s the youngest player in the top 12. The stats are weighted because he was averaging about 22 minutes a game in the first week of play, but in the last week, he’s seen his playing time jump to nearly 25 minutes a game with a 32-minute showing on January 5th.
True Shooting %: Here’s why Allen is so efficient: he’s putting everything he touches through the net. Right now, he’s third in the NBA in true shooting percentage, weighted by a stout .700 shooting from 2-point range while adding in a nearly 73% free throw rate. From a backup center, that’s nice. He’s averaging nearly 11 points per game, with 3 out of his last 4 games resulting in 14 points or greater.
Rebounds: Guess who’s the #2 ball-grabber in the league? Wait, that came out wrong. ENYWHEY. Allen trails only the elite Andre Drummond in rebound percentage, meaning when Allen’s on the floor, he’s the guy getting the balls. On a per-36 minute basis, Allen’s leading the league with 17.4 total rebounds. You want to know why Allen’s minutes per game are rocketing skyward as fast as Dodgecoin? It’s because he’s controlling the basket and getting the ball into the Nets’ possession to allow Kyrie and Durant to do damage.
Blocks: Broken record player time: Allen is 8th in the league in per-36 blocks. Allen’s grabbing all the missed shots AND stopping the shots from getting to the net in the first place. That’ll get you playing time under a new coach.
Takeaway: 34% of managers are starting Allen right now, and there’s nearly a 20% chance he’s sitting on the waiver wire in your league. He’s showing you his floor right now in 24 minutes per game, and he’s starting to get hints that he’ll be on the floor for 30+ minutes per game. If he gets that kind of time, you’re looking at the league-leading rebounder and a top-5 blocks player. If he remains at his current floor, he’s contributing in most categories (no 3-pointers, sadly…) where you would want your center to contribute. So, can’t hurt, might help. For those you on DFS, you’ll want to put Allen into some lineups this week before the bookies catch on and start raising his price.
